Every once in a while, we come to a place that I feel I am not finished with. Whether it is because I have not seen a particular species there before, or because I have seen many of a species there, I am almost always transfixed by my desire to learn more about the place, and/or its inhabitants. Such is the case with Sitkoh Bay. It is not communion with the bears, or even a chance to watch the Sitka black-tailed deer, but a lower prey I seek. This is the ancestral home of one of Alaska’s most mysterious inhabitants – the ghost slug! For all of the traveling that I have done across the various terrains of Southeast Alaska, I have never found this sub-species of the banana slug anywhere but in Sitkoh Bay. After making our acquaintance with this genetic marvel, we listened to Pacific wrens, hermit thrushes, and Pacific-slope flycatchers, truly a divine symphony in the trees. One to be savored, and remembered, for a long time to come.
8/1/2019
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National Geographic Venture
Baranof Island
After exploring the glaciers and open waters of the northern Inside Passage, we sailed south through the night and returned to the starting point of our journey, Baranof Island. This island, along with Admiralty to the east and Chichagof to the north, is home to one of the highest densities of brown bears in the world. To search for evidence of the bears as they begin their yearly salmon feast and continue our exploration of the temperate rainforest, we anchored in Kelp Bay to kayak and hike the shoreline throughout the morning. Later in the afternoon, we welcomed Dr. Andy Szabo of the Alaska Whale Foundation to learn more about ongoing research taking place in Alaska on the unique bubblenet feeding behavior we witnessed earlier in the trip. Only in Alaska can you experience the forest, salmon, bears, and whales all in one day.
